Senator Cynthia Villar captured the attention of the netizens again over her comment on the decision of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to allocate a bigger amount of money on research for the National Corn Program than putting more money for the direct assistance to farmers.
Villar who’s the chairman of Senate committee on agriculture, food and agrarian reform questioned the decision of DA and asked them why they’re obsessed with doing research than helping the farmers directly.
“Parang lahat ng inyong budget puro research? Baliw na baliw kayo sa research. Aanhin niyo ba yung research?” Villar said on Wednesday during a senate hearing.
“Ako matalino akong tao pero hindi ko maintindihan yung research niyo, lalo na yung farmer. Gusto ba ng farmer yung research? Hindi ba gusto nila tulungan niyo sila? Bakit ba lahat ng budget niyo research?” she added.
According to her, farmers need financial assistance, seeds, and more tools that would help them in farming.
“Kung ako farmer, mas gusto ko nang bigyan ako ng seeds, bigyan ako ng machineries kaysa yung mga kung anu anong ‘yan. Kaunting-kaunti lang ang ibinibigay sa farmers kaya ang ating mga farmers continously naghihirap,” she said.
She also questioned why the seed reserve budget is higher than the seed distribution project.
According to the proposed budget, the budget for seed reserve is P218-M while the supply prepared for distribution is only at P31-M.
Seed reserve can only be distributed to the farmers during natural calamities.
Villar said that DA should distribute more money directly to the farmers instead of doing research because the money came from the taxpayers.
“Wala nang nabibigay sa tao. Pera ng tao ‘yan eh. Taxpayers’ money ‘yan,” she said.